From their first UK General Election in 1987 until the election of 2015, the Liberal Democrats were the third party in the House of Commons winning between 46 and 62 MPs. At the 2010 general election, under the leadership of Nick Clegg who had been elected leader in 2007, the Liberal Democrats won 57 seats, again making them the third-largest party in the House of Commons behind the Conservatives with 307 and Labour with 258. However, with no party having an overall majority, the Liberal Democrats agreed to join a coalition government with the Conservative Party with Clegg becoming Deputy Prime Minister and other Liberal Democrats taking up ministerial positions.

History

The party was founded on 18 September 2007 as a split of the right wing of Democracy is Freedom – The Daisy (DL). Liberal Democrats broke because of their opposition to the formation of the Democratic Party. The new party was a sort of continuation of the late Italian Renewal party. The party was joined by three senators (Natale D'Amico, Giuseppe Scalera and Dini himself), a deputy (Italo Tanoni), a under-secretary (Daniela Melchiorre) and two regional deputies (Rosario Monteleone in Liguria and Antonio Verini in Abruzzo). Dini was elected party president, Tanoni coordinator and Scalera leader in the Senate, where Liberal Democrats were able to form a component in the Mixed Group.

Dini, who was minister of the Treasury in the Berlusconi I Cabinet, announced that the party remained a "critical member" of The Union and that it will "support the Democratic Party from the outside". The party also continued to support Prodi II Cabinet, but distanced itself from the government on some issues, notably foreign policy and social security reform. One of the goals of Liberal Democrats was that of challenging the "statist illusion which survives in DS and DL" and what they describe the hegemony of the far left over the centre-left and the government itself. Dini's move was heavily criticized by some far left exponents of the coalition, who accused him of helping Berlusconi's return in office.